Numerous types of imaging apparatus that utilize sheet media are known. Examples of such imaging apparatus include flatbed scanners, photocopiers, printers, optical character recognition (OCR) devices, etc. Differing embodiments of such imaging apparatus often include sheet handling apparatus that draw sheets of media one at a time away from a stack, thereafter routing and transporting each sheet while various typical operations are performed thereon (e.g., optical scanning, printing and/or imaging, etc.).
Known sheet handling apparatus as described above vary greatly in their respective configurations and methods of operation. However, many of such devices are directed to reliably drawing a single sheet of media away from a stack or reservoir of plural sheet media as a substantial first step during normal, repetitive operation. Due to various complicating factors such as, for example, friction between adjacent media sheets, static electric attraction, humidity, etc., such sheet handling apparatus are generally complex in their overall design and elemental count in the interest of providing consistent, acceptable operation.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide relatively simple methods and apparatus for consistently drawing sheets of media one at a time away from a stack of plural sheet media.